As an immigrant who came to this country with her family as a small child, Hirono made the case for reforms that offer basic protections to immigrants, cut backlogs and make the family immigration system stronger.

“I know firsthand that immigration is a women’s issue and a family issue,” Hirono said in her opening statement. “It’s from my own experience as an immigrant that I believe immigration reform should make the family immigration system stronger, not weaker. And we should not ignore the challenges immigrant women face.”

As a newly sworn-in senator, Hirono took the rare opportunity of chairing the full committee hearing. The hearing came as a bipartisan group of her Senate colleagues work to draft immigration reform legislation.

“I thank Senator Hirono for chairing this important hearing today and focusing on how our current system tears families apart. I know her unique personal experience will contribute greatly to the debate next month as we consider comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who chaired the committee’s first immigration hearing in February.

At today’s hearing, expert witnesses gave testimony describing the backlogs that affect millions of immigrants, how our immigration system can be exploited by employers to abuse domestic workers and how extending basic benefits to immigrants can help save our country money.

“Unfortunately, the U.S. family immigration system is broken, outdated and failing to facilitate the full purpose of our family immigration policies. Our current system, which has not been updated in over two decades, works against families by separating mother from daughter, sister from brother and wife from husband. As of November 2012, nearly 4.3 million close family members were waiting in the family visa backlogs,” testified Mee Moua, President and Executive Director of the Asian American Justice Center.

The fight to make the family immigration system stronger is a personal one for Hirono. When Hirono’s mother first brought her to America, she could only bring two children – the future senator and her older brother. Hirono’s younger brother had stay behind in Japan, and only later was her mother able to bring him to Hawaii so the family could be together again.

Earlier in the day, Hirono spoke passionately about her own story at a rally hosted by the National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights.

“Immigration reform should make the family immigration system stronger, not weaker. We cannot stand by and let a broken system keep families separated,” Hirono said at the rally.

Hirono’s opening statement from today’s committee hearing:

“Good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to call to order this hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. This hearing is titled, “How Comprehensive Immigration Reform Should Address the Needs of Women and Families.” It will be an opportunity to learn about how immigration impacts women and families, as we begin to consider the ways in which we will reform our immigration laws.

I’d like to welcome each of the witnesses, and Ranking Member Grassley, Senator Sessions, and Senator Franken for joining us today.

I would like to thank Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Grassley, and their staffs, for making this hearing possible.

The debate on immigration reform has often focused on the needs of the business community. Despite the fact that immigrant women are about as likely to have a bachelor’s degree as immigrant men, and women make up 51 percent of migrants in the U.S., employment based visas go to men over women 3-to-1. As a result, women are far more likely to immigrate to this country under the family-based system.

But this often means that they are here as dependent spouses without the ability to work legally.

As we look to reform our immigration laws, we must consider how women and families will be affected. Historically, women have been treated as unequal in our immigration system, with citizenship tied to their husbands. In fact, 100 years ago, if a U.S. citizen woman married a non-citizen she could lose her citizenship.

I know firsthand that immigration is a women’s issue and a family issue.

My mother brought my brother and me to this country when I was a young girl to escape a terrible marriage at the hands of my father.

He was an alcoholic and compulsive gambler. I did not get to know him much. Instead of watching our family continue to suffer, my mother made the courageous decision to seek a better life for us.

She plotted and planned in secret, and when I was nearly 8 years old… We literally escaped to this place called Hawaii and this country called America.

It’s from my own experience as an immigrant that I believe immigration reform should make the family immigration system stronger, not weaker.

And we should not ignore the challenges immigrant women face.

The purpose of this hearing is to look at these challenges, and how we should correct these problems in the debate on Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

We will hear about immigrant women in the workplace, and the problems of exploitation that they often suffer. We will hear about the importance of family immigration to our communities and our economy. And we will hear about how Comprehensive Immigration Reform should address the integration of undocumented women and children to fully participate in society. I look forward to a great discussion.”